Dec 22 2016
Oldcastle Precast-Idaho Falls supplied multiple precast concrete bridge elements to the Bonneville County Road Department for a new bridge at Jensen Creek, in Caribou-Targhee National Forest, Bonneville County, Idaho. The new bridge will improve travel in that area and enhance the fish habitat.
Speed was crucial mainly because work in fish bearing streams, like Jensen Creek, is allowed September 1 through the end of October. To meet the schedule, precast concrete bridge elements were chosen since they are manufactured off-site while site work is completed and then installed quickly.
Consequently, on September 19, 2016, Bonneville County began installing a new bridge over Jensen Creek on the McCoy Creek Road (FS Road 087). The bridge required two, 26-foot-long by 4-foot-3-inch-tall and 5-foot-wide precast stem wall footings which the precast bridge sections would be fixed; two, 24-foot-wide by 6-foot-tall by 6-foot-6-inch-long precast bridge sections and curb; two, 24-foot-wide by 6-foot-tall by 6-foot-6-inch-long mid bridge sections; and four, 12-foot-tall by 9-foot-2-inch-wide wingwalls. All precast components, creating the 26-foot span, 8.5-foot-rise, 3-sided bridge, were designed and manufactured by Oldcastle Precast-Idaho Falls.
The new bridge over Jensen Creek is a partnership between Trout Unlimited, Bonneville County, and the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in an effort to improve the fish habitat, as well as improve travel in that area.
Tracy Hollingshead, Palisades District Ranger(US Department of Agriculture- Forest Services)
In an effort to restore healthy stream beds for the trout habitat, the Forest Service and Trout Unlimited have teamed up to relocate some existing streambeds in Idaho and Wyoming. Moving them from thicker forested locations, getting dammed up by Beavers, into more open areas less susceptible to the harmful effects of PONDING, caused by beaver dams.